Britain has been shaped by waves of immigration since at least Roman times. Recent settlement after 1945 — Caribbean migrants on the Empire Windrush in 1948, South Asian families from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from the 1950s and 1960s, Polish and other Eastern European workers from 2004 — have made the UK one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe. The 2011 census recorded around 14% of the population as belonging to a non-white ethnic group, with the proportion higher in many cities.
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The handbook treats this diversity as a defining feature of modern British life. Equality legislation, public broadcasting and the school curriculum all reflect a multi-ethnic society, and many British cultural traditions — music, food, religion — have been enriched by migration.
You may be asked which year the Empire Windrush arrived (1948), which census recorded these figures, or which UK cities are most ethnically diverse (London, Birmingham, Leicester and Manchester are common examples).
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